Frozen Food

Purchased Price: $3.49Size: 2 sandwiches/boxPurchased at: TargetRating: 5 out of 10Pros: Edible. Not the worst way to start your morning; that would be not having toilet paper. Why does the picture below make me want to play Super Mario Land? Low fat. Good source of protein and calcium. Cheese on box front image is a realistic representation of what cheese really looks like after being microwaved.Cons: Not the most flavorful way to start your morning. Heating instruction are a slight pain (wrap in paper towel, 30% power for 90 seconds, flip over, heat on high for 60 seconds); can’t set it and forget it. One side of the English muffin gets a bit hard after being nuked (although it does also happen with other frozen English muffin breakfast sandwiches). Yes, just one side. The other side is fine. Egg whites have no flavor; could’ve used a little butter flavor. Turkey sausage wasn’t seasoned very well.

Purchased Price: $3.50 (on sale)Size: 4 pouchesPurchased at: SafewayRating: 4 out of 10Pros: Pieces are soft and easy to tear apart. Smells pleasant when being microwaved. Comes in microwaveable pouch. Ready in about 70 seconds. Fortified with vitamins and minerals. Wittle French toast look so adowable that I want to eat them up…Oh wait, I did.Cons: Doesn’t taste like French toast. Have some cinnamon handy (or syrup) because the light cinnamon flavor will have some of you reaching for it. Pleasant aroma disappears once it’s out of the microwave. No toaster instructions. Why do they make my fingers greasy? Part of an unsatisfying breakfast.

Purchased Price: $2.99Size: 7 1/4 oz.Purchased at: TargetRating: 8 out of 10Pros: Holy chickpeas! There are a lot of chickpeas! I possibly could make hummus with that many chickpeas. The entire salad has a nice mild dill aroma. Tasty cucumber dill dressing makes me want to eat my vegetables. It’s surprising the croutons didn’t get soggy from being frozen. Good amount of chicken. Enough dressing to coat everything, if you don’t add too much lettuce. This might be my favorite Lean Cuisine Salad Additions variety. Chickpeas and garbanzo beans are fun words to say.Cons: Not a lot of red peppers, but even fewer olives. I’m never sure how much lettuce to add. Chickpeas didn’t have any flavor, they just seems to bring the fiber. The more lettuce added, the lighter the dressing’s flavor becomes. Placing frozen dressing in room temperature water doesn’t do a good job of thawing it out before the other ingredients are done in the microwave. Bringing a container of lettuce with you to work and then having everyone wonder if you’re on a rabbit’s diet.

Purchased Price: $6.49 (on sale)Size: 4 sandwichesPurchased at: SafewayRating: 4 out of 10Pros: Better tasting than a bowl of corn flakes. In real life, it looks almost exactly like it does on its packaging. Faster to heat than other breakfast sandwiches, like Jimmy Dean and Special K (45-60 seconds faster). They’re simpler to heat too; just throw the sandwich pouch on to a microwaveable plate (other sandwiches have you wrap it in a paper towel first) and then throw into microwave.Cons: Not the most flavorful way to start your day. Biscuit has an un-biscuity texture; it’s like a combination of a hamburger bun and buttermilk biscuit. Buttermilk biscuit also has an odd flavor. Yes, it’s a reduced fat sausage, but the sandwich still has 60 percent of your daily saturated fat and 37 percent of your daily fat. Sausage patty doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Eggs lack any butteriness. Not knowing Tyson produces more than chicken products.

Purchased Price: $5.99 (on sale)Size: 14.1 oz.Purchased at: SafewayRating: 5 out of 10Pros: Pleasant sweet and smoky sauce with a hint of lime. Nice crispy crust. Long list of toppings (white meat chicken, roasted corn, black beans, poblano peppers, fire-roasted red and yellow peppers, cilantro, mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, and romano cheeses, and a spicy chipotle lime sauce). Preservative-free crust. Cons: Not spicy at all. It would make the Spicy Chipotle Chicken pizza available at California Pizza Kitchen restaurants cry because this frozen version is a poor representation of it. Nice long list of toppings didn’t translate into a pizza with a complex flavor. Not a lot of chicken. Had to manually move toppings to get an even distribution.